Arcturus Black stormed out of the bank, robes billowing behind him as the crowds parted before the glaring patriarch. Time Travel! And to think he would die of dragonpox in two years. Well, at least he would finally see Melania again. The last decade or so had been hard without her. But he could set things in place for Sirius - Phineas, he corrected himself - to take over. It couldn't be too obvious, the wizengamot seat would have to lay dormant, and some businesses would need to run autonomously for a few years. It made Arcturus grate his teeth, but needs must. It was better than the alternative, he'd spin in his grave if Lucius Malfoy got his hands on the Black gold.
Sirius, Ted, Harry and Dora trudged out of the bank following their exhausting meeting with the Lord Black. Arcturus was a demanding, exacting man in the best of moods, and he did not like surprises. Sirius sighed as the group stood at the base of the bank's stairs.
"Well, I have my marching orders from Grandfather, and I need to talk to Dumbledore and Amelia about this."
"And I need to get to the practice. Harry, I'm sure Dora can show you, but it's one of the buildings up near the Leaky that has a muggle and a wizarding front. You two have your gold right?" At their nods, Ted continued. "Good, Stay in the Alley, and come to my office by 5, okay? We'll floo back from there."
"Sure thing, Dad!" Dora was excited, she wasn't expecting to have all day with Harry. Especially when he needed to go clothes shopping! Harry was a little less enthused, he knew what was coming, but it would be nice to spend a whole day with a friend - who was also a pretty girl, of course. It was hard for him to forget that. While Harry was currently dressed in some old clothes of Ted's transfigured to fit, Dora was embracing the summer with some shorts that showed far more leg than Harry was expecting, and a spaghetti strap tank top that was short enough to only just flash some midriff when she moved.
Ted looked to Harry. "You've got the ring on that holds your appearance in check?" Harry nodded, holding up his hand to show them. It was a stifling feeling, but necessary to go out to the Alley without having learned to control his appearance yet.
Sirius and Ted smiled, gave the two a once-over in the fashion parents subconsciously do before leaving, and then headed their separate ways. Dora immediately took Harry's hand, and pulled him towards Madam Malkin's.
"C'mon, Harry! Time to get you some real clothes!" He stumbled at her sudden jerk on his arm but followed along behind, rolling his eyes. At least with her mum's expanded bag, he wouldn't have to carry everything for the rest of the day.
Dora pulled him into the shop, moving to the counter, her eyes alight with excitement. Harry had never expected to see Tonks like this, her older self had been far less girly. Maybe it had to do with becoming an auror, he thought. An assistant came out of the back to see them.
"Hello! Welcome to Madam Malkin's. My name is Elizabeth. I assume you're here for school robes? It's a bit early in the summer for that…" She looked at Dora. "And you're entirely too excited for that."
Dora shooker her head. "No ma'am, Harry here needs an entire wardrobe! He and his dad are staying with my family, recently come back from abroad, and the portkey lost their bags."
Elizabeth's eyes widened, a whole wardrobe? She looked to Harry. "Is that right? Everything?" Harry nodded.
"Even what I'm currently wearing is transfigured." At this point, Harry was pretty resigned to everything. Elizabeth's polite smile turned into a shark-like grin, and she turned back to Dora to see a matching one on her face. Harry gulped.
"And I suppose that's why you're so excited? Get to play dress-up with your boyfriend and he can't complain?" Dora blushed and looked away, but Elizabeth had already turned around to dive into the back. "Come around, we'll get you two set up in a private room!" Harry's face matched Dora's in hue at this point too, and both followed along behind the woman. As they entered the small room, Harry noticed Elizabeth getting out various muggle clothing.
"I can get normal clothes here?" He blurted out.
"Of course you can! Stuffy purebloods go to Twilfit and Tattings down the alley. We don't keep our stock all that visible and we don't carry a lot, but we do have stuff like jeans and tees." She turned to look at him with the same predatory smile of earlier. "Now, what kind of pants do you like, Boxers, or briefs?" She held out a package of each, and Dora just about died laughing at Harry's expression.
Three hours later, the pair stumbled out the door, Harry in exhaustion and Dora in clumsiness. Harry was still able to catch the both of them, though. Dora had packed away Harry's new wardrobe into her bag, and Harry was now wearing new clothes for the first time in his life. It felt pretty good, he would admit later. He was dressed in slim fitting black jeans, red converse, and a thin graphic tee with a stylized phoenix that was supposedly a wizarding band's symbol. Dora had insisted he simply must wear this shirt - He wasn't sure why, but he was okay with a phoenix. Fawkes had been cool.
"So anything else you need to get?" Dora asked, wondering if they could now go sit at Fortescue's all afternoon.
"Well your mum did give me a list of books that I'll need to study, and I've not told anyone yet, but I actually don't have a wand. When I first tried after coming back, it resisted my magic, and when I tried to force it, it split open, and left me with two wand halves and the phoenix feather core. The inside of the wood was burnt and charred, so I figured I should talk to Ollivander."
Dora's eyes were wide, and she immediately dragged him to the wand shop. Harry didn't know why everything had to be so hurried with Dora, but he didn't mind how they ended up holding hands as a result of her rush.
The bell tinkled as they entered, and both felt the same hushed awe as they did during their first visit. It was a subtle thing, but the magic of creation was in the air. Ollivander silently exited the back, but unlike their first visits, did not surprise them.
"Miss Tonks, and… someone familiar, but I cannot place you. What can I help you with?" The man was intrigued, frowning at Harry, like he was a puzzle to be solved.
"I need a new wand, Sir, and I was hoping you could do it with a phoenix feather from my old wand. It seems fine, but the wood was ruined." Ollivander's eyebrows rose at Harry's statement.
"Well, I'd need to see the feather, of course, to make sure it wasn't what reacted so strongly, to have burnt out the wand. It is possible that because you have gone through such personal growth, that your old wand was no longer suitable. But you intrigue me, Phoenix feather wands are quite rare, where did you acquire your wand?" Ollivander seemed more interested in this than fixing his wand. Harry knew this would be a problem, the old man was more nosy than even the headmaster.
"I'm Hadrian Black, son of Phineas Black. I'm Marius Black's great-grandson, he was disowned after being discovered as a squib." Ollivander nodded slowly, realizing this wasn't the full story, but no further explanation would be forthcoming. Harry's hard gaze told him that much.
"Well, if you have the feather with you, I can certainly take a look. And I can pair you with a wood - I normally don't for children, but for adults - or close enough, in your case - your personality is more defined and we can do more custom work. And of course, The school rush hasn't started yet." Ollivander let out a light chuckle as he hunched over the counter, looking closely at the feather Harry had placed there. His small smile slowly turned to a frown, though, and he reached out to touch the feather, before looking back into the depths of his store.
Before Ollivander could say anything, though, Harry interrupted him. "Don't ask questions I won't answer, Mr. Ollivander. Not unless you're willing to swear a magical oath." His jaw snapped closed, cutting off his question before it formed. The man stood then, and gathered some boxes from a shelf to the side. He placed them on the counter, revealing wand blanks in various woods.
"Take your hand and pass over the boxes, Mr. Black, and see which calls to you. Once you have picked a wood, try the various lengths in the boxes for one that balances well in your grip." Ollivander moved past the awkwardness as if it hadn't existed, continuing with a professional air. He turned to Dora while Harry was choosing a wood.
"I can't go through this process with first-years, as they're not magically adept enough to feel the call of the wood. Well, some might be, but most aren't. And some adults never develop the sense for it." The two looked back to Harry, who had pulled a box towards him and was now handling each, mocking spells to feel for the balance of the wood. Ollivander's eyes widened as he saw which wood he had picked. Birch was an uncommon wood for a wand, representing new beginnings and purification. Coupled with a phoenix feather…
Harry settled on a 13-inch, relatively thin blank with very little taper to the point. The wood felt warm in his hand, and the blank balanced perfectly, even moreso than his old holly wand. Harry felt a fleeting moment of loss as Ollivander reached out and took it from his hand.
"I expect we'll see great things from you with this wand, The core and wood compliment themselves nicely - both are symbols of rebirth, and the birch wood is indicative of a purity of heart and soul. It's fairly common to see in Healers, though those wands are more often finished with unicorn Hair. Phoenix feather is much too… incendiary for such work, however, this wand will more likely seek to purify with fire and action." Ollivander said in a hushed voice, slowly rotating the blank in his hands as he inspected it.
Ollivander stood sharply. "I'll start work on this immediately, Mr. Black. Please return after four or so to pick up the finished wand." He quickly disappeared into the back of the shop with the blank and the phoenix feather, awkwardly leaving Harry and Dora at the counter.
The two teens walked out, Dora taking his hand with a light blush, but not pulling him along like earlier. Harry sure as hell wasn't going to complain, so he just walked alongside her with a grin on his face.
"You said you need to visit the bookstore, right?" Dora asked, as they approached it.
"Yeah, I've got to pick up a book on occlumency and some stuff on runes. Your mum wants me to try and learn three years of runes in one summer to get that OWL as well. She says it's easy, because she can teach me specifically for what the test asks, but I think she's still a bit crazy. We'll see though." Harry ran his hand through his hair in frustration. Dora couldn't help but imagine running her fingers through his hair.
"Should we get our school stuff now?" Harry tentatively asked Dora, not wanting this to drag on longer than it needed to.
"Nah, we'll want a reason to come back to the Alley later, even if it's just for a break. Plus, we've not got our book lists yet." Dora shook her head. "Plus you won't know what to get stuff for till you've taken your OWLs."
The pair walked in and picked up the books Andromeda had recommended. As they were ringing up, a blonde, wispy, fae-like woman and her ethereal daughter walked in. Harry recognized Luna, and assumed this must be her mother, Pandora Lovegood. It struck him then, that the woman would die soon, maybe within the next few months. Luna did say she was about nine when her mom passed.
It was completely instinctual, then, for Harry, to lean in towards the woman as they walked out of the store, and whisper in her ear -
"Be careful with your experiments, I have seen what comes of your death, and how it affects your daughter." He made it a few more steps as the woman froze, and began to process his rushed message. As Dora gave him a funny look for his actions, a splitting headache attacked Harry as if an axe was being driven through his skull. He stumbled out the door as the woman looked at him befuddled, before turning to answer one of her daughter's questions.
Dora led him to sit at one of Fortescue's exterior tables, and wiped a bead of blood running from his nose. Harry sat, panting, eyes closed and hands holding his head, as he slowly assimilated the changed memories. Ultimately, it was a small change, Luna was still bullied by her house for her odd comments, it was just now that she couldn't see the thestrals either, nor did any of her comments about her mother exist, either. He knew he should remember them, but the memories themselves were missing. After a few minutes, he sat back, slowly opening his eyes. The instant migraine had receded to a dull headache.
"Are you okay now, Harry? What was that?" Dora asked, concerned for her new friend.
"I just realized the consequences for changing something. I'll need to talk to your mum and Dumbledore about it, and warn Sirius, because I don't know if that was a big change, or a small change." He sighed, turning to look from the sky to the metamorph in front of him, who continued to worry her lower lip over his condition.
"Pandora Lovegood died during one of her experiments, and traumatized her daughter Luna, who saw it happen. She had forgotten to use a safety charm of some sort. I just warned her of it, and then my memories of Luna talking about her mum changed, and the old ones, while I know what they should be, just aren't there anymore." Harry looked down at the table, his hands fisting on the wrought iron lattice that formed the top.
"But is it a small change, because I never knew her, and all that changed were my memories of asides from Luna? Or is it a big one, because I saved someone's life?" Harry forced himself to relax. "Let's get some ice cream, I need some now. But I don't want to do that again if I can help it, that was worse than my scar ever hurt."
Dora nodded and the two stood, taking each other's hands without thinking about it, both searching for a bit of comfort despite the perfect summer weather. They spent the rest of the afternoon as teens should, laughing, teasing, indulging in too many servings of ice cream, and ignoring their growing attraction between them.
Sirius walked out of a seedy tavern in Vertic Alley, one of the Black family businesses that Arcturus was having him inspect and bring to heel. His grandfather had expected a number of these had been co-opted by Malfoy on the assumption his son was the Black heir, and Arcturus had let it go, because he too thought that, and was resigned to it and the destruction of his legacy, surviving only in name. But with the revelation that his grandson lived, a fire was lit underneath the old man, and he was sending his "distant cousin" around to check on things.
As he stepped into the apparition point and turned, a blinding headache attacked him out of nowhere. He dropped to the ground and groaned, holding his head in his hands. As the pain receded, he looked up, and realized he had completed the apparition to the Tonks' townhome. And then realized he had left his clothes behind, and was stark naked in the entryway.
"Merlin's saggy balls, everything was in my robe!" Swearing, Sirius ran up to his room to throw on another outfit before returning to gather what he had left behind after splinching. At least he made it back with all his body parts. It would be embarrassing enough to have to collect his clothes in public.